Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW Books first edition: It was Water's call that summoned the Dragon Earth and his human guide, the girl called Erde, on a flight through time, transporting them from the war-torn German principalities in the year 913 to the African coast in 2013. And though the land from which they came was beset by the perils of war and religious fanaticism, this future offered them no safe haven. For the passing centuries had seen the world plunged into a downward spiral of environmental devastation from which there would soon be no possibility of recovery. Earth's sister, the shape-shifting dragon Water, waited to greet them in this strange new land, offering the travelers the momentary belief that they had found the answer to their quest. But Water and her guide, the streetwise boy known as N'doch, had as many questions and fears as Earth and Erde. Pursued by enemies in both eras, they soon realized their mission was only beginning and their only hope lay in finding the remaining dragons - Fire and Air - before it was too late...